Ocean Vuong on Class, Grief, and When He Plans To Call It Quits| Fresh Air

Video Description

Ocean Vuong’s new novel, The Emperor of Gladness, unfolds in a quiet Connecticut town, where a 19-year-old struggling with addiction and an 82-year-old widow drifting through dementia form an unexpected and tender bond. What begins as a chance connection becomes a meditation on survival, chosen family, and the fragility of memory. But this conversation goes far beyond the novel. In this interview: • The emotional landscape of The Emperor of Gladness • What Ocean learned about hope, faith, and kindness working in fast food • How grief and language shaped Ocean’s identity • How writers like Toni Morrison led the way • Why teaching offers more freedom than publishing _________________________ Find Fresh Air: Subscribe for more deep-dive interviews Stay connected by subscribing to our newsletter Fresh Air Instagram: @nprfreshair Tonya Mosley Instagram: @tonyatalks Hope Wilson, Consulting Visual Producer Molly Seavy-Nesper, Digital Media Producer Walid Azami, Director of Photography Enrico Benjamin, Original music _________________________ Chapters: 0:00 Ocean's death meditation practice 00:30 Why Ocean was nervous about the reception of his latest book 04:37 Who Ocean is writing for 07:40 Ocean reads from The Emperor of Gladness 12:21 What Ocean learned working at Boston Market and Panera Bread 13:58 The limitations of the sonnet 18:57 The choice to live and find meaning in the mundane everyday experiences 25:10 Hope embedded in kindness 26:42 The strangeness of class mobility 31:50 Value Systems 36:08 “In this next life…” Ocean’s mother’s haunting last words before death 41:17 Ocean’s relationship to happiness 41:28 Freedom within to write 48:10 The critique of being “earnest”